The changing face of Masterton commerce

The refit of one of Masterton's oldest commercial buildings has almost been finished, and the conversion of what is one of the town's most interesting properties is almost complete. Gareth Winter from the Wairarapa Archive looks at the life of the building on the corner of Jackson and Chapel Streets.

In the early years of the twentieth century a fundamental change took place among the country's mechanical engineers. Many had established businesses devoted to selling and maintaining bicycles, but as the century began they expanded into selling and maintaining motorcycles and, eventually, motor cars.

Jenkinson and Company, which was based in Wellington but also had a property in lower Queen Street, was fairly typical. In late 1906 they announced they were to expand and build a large two-storied brick building in Chapel Street. The building, designed by local architects Varnham and Rose, was built by local carpenters Coradine and Whittaker, to the cost of £1500.

In early 1907 Jenkinson and Co were taken over by the Wellington-Wairarapa Motor and Cycle Company Limited, and the new building featured the new company's logo in concrete. Before long the Wairarapa Automobile Association took a lease on the first floor.

In 1913 another change took place when the Wellington-Wairarapa Motor and Cycle Company moved out and were replaced by H J Jones, who was described as being connected with the local motor business for many years. Jones was not to remain in the building for long either - by 1916 he had convinced the Masterton Trust Lands Trust to build him his "City Garage" in Lincoln Road, and had shifted. His new building was demolished in 2010.

T A Wrigley, owner of the old building, decided to operate a garage on his own account, and announced he had engaged the services of Mr Cecil Elmsley, who has been foreman mechanic in one of the leading garages in the Wairarapa for the previous four years.

In 1919 the Masterton Borough Council, under pressure from Essex Street residents who wished to have a more direct route into Queen Street, agreed to form a new road from Chapel Street, alongside Wrigley's garage, and Jackson Street was formed.

Things changed again in 1924, when Wrigley sold the building and the business to George Malmo who sold Firestone tyres and Chevrolet cars. The first floor was used by a number of different offices and other organisations - at times there was a miniature rifle range, a skating rink and practice rooms for the Fern and Thistle Pipe Band.

George Malmo, who always came to work dressed in a suit, collar and tie, with a white dust coat, retired from the business in 1950, handing over to his son Mick, who undertook some restoration work on the building, at the suggestion of the Masterton Borough Council, concerned about the safety of brick buildings following the damage many sustained in the 1942 earthquake. The redevelopment also allowed easier access to the petrol pumps at the front of the service station.

The 1960s saw more alteration to the first floor, and the Child Welfare Department, staying until the opening of the Government Building further along Chapel Street in 1979.

In the late 1960s Ian Hoggard bought the garage and renamed it Majestic Motors, occupying it until 1979, when the service department and the paint shop moved to the Dixon Street site the vehicle sales department had shifted too in 1977.

For the first time there was no garage on the site. Instead it housed a fruit and vegetable shop when the Bishop brothers, Tony and Bruce, opened the 'Fruit Bowl,' which featured a refrigerated meat wagon acting as a chiller.

Changing retail patterns forced another change in 1995 - the 'Fruit Bowl' relocated to Kuripuni and 'Video Ezy' took over the lease while a variety of organisations leased office space at the rear of the building, and on the first floor. Among others the Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service, Rape Crisis, Work Wairarapa, the Violence Free Group and Mature Employment have been tenants.

These photographs show the secret to the building's resilience as the building has been moulded to meet the community's needs.